Are our proposed “environmentally
friendly” energies really environmentally friendly?
Everyone
nowadays is talking about how they can make the world more “green.” They are
talking about many different forms of energy that are not like the traditional
forms. These new types of energy are not supposed to use the earth’s
non-renewable resources. Instead the new proposed sources of energy use energy that are completely renewable. These energies use the natural
resources on earth. Such as: wind, solar, and hydroelectric. My blog will focus
on the pros and cons of all of these sources. It will show how many of these
energies are actually harming the earth more that than help it.
Wind energy
Wind energy
would seem like it would be one of the cleanest energies that could possibly be
produced. There are no carbon emissions, no other harmful emissions, and no
greenhouse gasses produced in the process. This sounds like the most ideal form
of energy that we have, right? Unfortunately this is not entirely the case.
Wind energy has many other negatives for the energy it produces. One of these
is wind energy produces very little energy for the amount of space and
materials required. In order to produce wind energy efficiently, you need to
have a very large wind turbine that is hundreds of feet in the air. To do this
you need to use a lot of steel and other metals. This however is not a huge
problem because steel is recyclable and almost all forms of energy require big
infrastructure. One of the main problems associated with wind energy is the
amount of land it takes to produce it. Wind turbines must be placed at least
half of a mile apart in order to use the wind effectively. If the turbines are
too close to one another, they will not be able to get all of the wind that
they need. Therefore you will need many acres of land to produce a small amount
of energy. In a study conducted in 1970, scientist concluded that it would take
18,000 square miles (about seven percent of the size of Texas) to produce 20
percent of the United States energy demands. Today that number is even larger
because we now require much more energy than in 1970. This is not an option in
our world. Fortunately this can be partially solved by placing the turbines on
farm land. Here the turbines take up virtually no space because they will
occupy the same space that the farm does. This however poses even more problems
with how we will get the energy to the cities, where we need it most. Most of
the time farms are not located right next to cities. This would require a much
more extensive electrical grid than what we currently have. Another problem
with wind energy is it is a very noisy form of energy. As wind moves the
turbine it produces a bunch of sound. This makes it even harder to place the
turbines near cities, as people will not like to hear them and the houses
property values will decrease. Overall wind energy is not a terrible thing but
it does have many limitations. I would not say wind energy is the ideal
green energy but it is definitely a form of energy that is not to be ignored.
Solar energy
operations generate absolutely zero air pollution. Unfortunately solar energy
produces a huge amount of pollution. Where does this pollution come from then,
you might ask? The entirety of the pollution produced by solar energy is produced in the production f the solar cells. One of the main problems is the usage of very
precious materials. In order to make solar cells that have a very high
efficiency you need to use materials such as indium gallium arsenide. This
mineral is extremely hard and dangerous to mine and is becoming very scarce in
our world. Another bad thing about this mineral is it is considered a blood
mineral, or one that is only available at a low cost because of the enslavement
of thousands of people. Some scientists concluded that there is only about ten
years left of this mineral. We are mining it too quickly to replenish our
supplies, and we will run out in that 10 year period. Another problem with
solar cells is they can be very difficult and dangerous to produce. The mass
amounts of silicon required to produce solar cells is extremely harmful to the
lungs if it is breathed in. During production of the solar cells silicon
particles can become airborne and go into a person’s lungs. This increases the
production cost of solar panels, because the companies must pay for additional
safety procedures in order for the particles to not become airborne. One of the
biggest problems of solar energy production is the inability to get highly
efficient solar panels. In fastcompany.com we learn about the following. Traditional solar panels are only around 10 percent
efficient. The sun currently provides 6000 times the energy as what we consume
from it. Current solar panels are being coated with dark substances, such as
pokeberries in order to absorb more of the suns energy. Unfortunately this
still only accounts for an efficiency of at most 45 percent. This means that
most of what the sun produces is going to waste instead of being converted into
useful electric energy. This is by far the biggest problem with current solar
panels. Solar cells are becoming much more efficient as technology’s increase,
but they are not looking to be in the useful amounts for many years to come.
Because of this all of the energy currently made from solar panels is only a
fraction of other sources such as wind and hydro-electric. Another huge problem
of solar panels is the amount of space they require to produce electricity.
Since the current solar panels are so inefficient, we will need many more of
them and therefore more land to produce enough energy for solar panels to be
effective. Another con of solar energy and one of the reasons they can never be
100 percent effective is the sun is not always shining. At night and during
cloudy days the solar panels will not work. This means that no energy is being
produced by them. Therefore we will need backup energy sources to take over
whenever the sun is not shining. This would take us back to our current sources
of energy and not let us strive to future technologies like we want to.
Hydro-electricity
Hydro-electric
power like solar and wind energy produces no greenhouse gasses and does not
produce any pollution. One of the main problems with hydro-electric power is
how it affects the local ecosystems. The dams that are required to create the
electricity meagerly disrupt local fish habits. One of the most noticeable
instances of this is in salmon. Salmon have to travel very far distances in
there mating season in order to get to their mating grounds. With the creation of a damn the salmon can no
longer make the long trip that is necessary to get to their mating grounds.
Because of this the fish will die out after only a few generations. Because of
the stunning effects on local fish populations dams are now required to make an
alternative route for the fish during their mating seasons. This makes it
possible to sustain the fish population, but forces the dams to have less water
energy to convert into electricity during the mating season. Because of the
fish population decreasing, large scale dams are no longer being made to
produce electricity. Some smaller dams are still being made but they cannot
make nearly as much power as their large scale brothers. So in the end
hydro-electricity is very much a dying form of power. This just shows that even
if a form of energy is completely free of environmental effects, it is still
not perfect, and will have some problems. In the case of hydro-electricity,
many of these problems actually outnumber the benefits.
So what does all of this mean?
Obviously
there is no “perfect” form of energy. As one of the articles state there is “no free lunch.” By saying this they are saying that "No form of energy generation is
completely free of environmental impact.” In order to make electricity we will
always have to use some of the earth’s natural resources. These could range
from using concrete to build a dam, to using ultra-pure precious materials such
as polysilicon to produce solar cells. The perfect form of energy that we can
have is the one that uses the least amount of earth’s resources, and allows for
very little production of harmful gasses. All of these forms of energy by themselves are not that great, but the real beauty of renewable resources is when you
combine them. When you can use some solar and some wind, combined with some
current methods you get a fairly efficient form of energy. Some of these types
of energy are not very popular anymore like hydro-electric energy. However some
new forms such as current solar cells and wind turbines are becoming much more
efficient. Because of this some people are investing on future forms of energy
to use on a small scale for their own household. This is a great idea because
you do not have to wait for the government to decide to implement future
energy’s. Instead you can place them on your house to power your own house. The
real beauty of this practice is your house will still be connected to the power
grid. This will make many of the negatives of solar and wind energies no longer
matter. If the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing you will simply
draw your power from the electric grid much like you would right now. Also when
you are generating more power than you can consume you can allow some of that
power to go back into the grid to power other homes. By doing this you will
make the electric company actually write you a check. Many of the current ideas
for future renewable forms of energy are just that, ideas. Most of them are
great ideas, but we have not found a way to harness the energy properly. Before
we can use these future energies to their fullest we must discover new technologies
to make them more efficient and more environmentally friendly. The forms of
energy must be cheap and environmentally friendly to make and to maintain.
Renewable environmentally friendly forms of energy are our future and we will
learn to use them to their fullest. Until then I am happy that we have reliable
fuels. We will need to continue to experiment with these renewable forms of
energy as a transition to real efficient renewable energies.
Print Works Cited
Kathirvel, C., and K. Porkumaran. "Technologies For Tapping Renewable Energy: A Survey."
European Journal Of Scientific Research 67.1 (2011): 112-118. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 10 May 2012.
Richards, Garrett, Bram
Noble, and Ken Belcher. "Barriers to renewable energy development:
A case study of large-scale wind energy in
Saskatchewan, Canada." Energy Policy 42
